Ironically, the oil and gas front groups pushing Colorado Initiative 71 assert that outside special interests are "polluting" Colorado's Constitution. Corporate lobbyists led by oil and gas represent the largest wealthy special interest.

As Democrat Senators spent two days this week outlining the cash funneled to front groups in the fossil fuel-funded climate "Web of Denial," predictably, some of the spiders started crawling out of that web.

An overwhelming majority of Americans and business leaders support policies that incentivize investment in and development of clean energy. We hope that you'll join the push toward the clean energy economy and invest in the clean energy sources that increasingly are powering America and the world.

We can and must do the same when it comes to protecting our voting rights and addressing big moneyed interests' disproportional sway in our politics. Corporate influence over our democracy is one of the biggest threats to our food, water and climate.

The American Legislative Exchange Council's three annual meetings are quite the spectacle. This month, at ALEC's third and final meeting of the year in Scottsdale, Arizona, I had an interesting encounter with a member of ALEC's board of directors.

A Ford spokesperson, Christin Baker, confirmed the ALEC grant to the Center for Media and Democracy/PRWatch, but said that the funding was not intended to be used by ALEC to block action on climate change.

ALEC and its members, including the American Federation for Children (AFC), have become more powerful than our citizens' voices at the State Capitol. Despite massive public urging for adequate K-12 public education funding, Republicans legislators aren't listening.

Shell's extraction from ALEC is part of a larger ongoing effort to position the company as concerned about the environment, responsible, and supportive of efforts to mitigate climate change. Don't believe it for a second.

The first Fox News Republican Party Presidential debates are over. Not surprisingly Donald Trump entertained and insulted. The supporting cast for his new apprentice show mostly hung out in the background.

ALEC, its member organizations, and Walker seem to be in lock step, pushing a far-right agenda that does not serve average working families. Walker's full embrace of ALEC gives us a good window into the control he would give to corporations and ALEC if he became president.

Brendan Fischer of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) tells us about CMD and Common Cause's latest submission to the International Revenue Service (IRS) showing that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) functions as a corporate lobbying group, in violation of the tax code for 501(c)(3) charities.